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A Word About Our Albums of the Decade Feature

As you may have noticed, the main feature on the site today is a look back at Joanna Newsom’s strange, beautiful, and surprisingly forgotten 2006 masterpiece, Ys. It was written by new contributor Liz Colville, and over the next week, we’ll be publishing similar pieces by a host of music writers, new and old, about their personal favorite album of the decade.

I decided to go this route instead of the big Top 100 or Top 50 or whatever, partially because I just don’t believe anyone still listens to that fucking Sigur Ros album, but also because I find myself annoyed by the fact that all the lists I’ve seen have been too heavily focused on records from the first half of the decade. Historical context is sort of a big deal, obviously, and it’s a lot easier to talk about the Strokes in a meaningful, big picture way than it is, you know, Fleet Foxes or Vampire Weekend, and it shows.

So instead, a handful of people who have good taste in stuff will tell you about the record they liked the most over the past ten years, and I don’t have to wrack my brain trying to decide ifYou Are Free is number 63 or number 64. It’s better this way, honest.